


Lover, please stay.

by Deliriumdoll



Category: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Downbeaten ben, F/M, Force Bond, Funeral feels, I must be emo, It's a bit soft, Let's face this gets quite emo, Lover please stay, Protective Rey, Set after crait, We lose leia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 07:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deliriumdoll/pseuds/Deliriumdoll
Summary: This idea came to me as I listened to Lover, please stay by Nothing but Thieves.We lose Leia, Rey is broken but wants to help Ben. She still sees the spark of light in him and can't give up on him now. He sees the full force of her light, and a glimpse of her dark. Rey is protective and powerful. Ben is defeated. They make quite the pair.Written on my phone at 5am as it's too hot to sleep.





	Lover, please stay.

After leaving Crait on the falcon Leia, Poe and Rey had gone back to do a final sweep to make sure no one had been left behind, in a tiny cloaked pod they thought they were safe. Somehow a group of first order fighters had found them and shot them down with ease.  
Rey couldn't feel Ben on any of them, when she found his force she could tell he was distracted by something. He was irritated. He wasn't concentrating. She thinks he's training. Or destroying something. The fighters were his Knights, their force power undeniable but no match for Ben. General Hux' name on all their minds and in their ears.

When the first missile hits Rey uses as much of her power as she can to shield the pod and its occupants from the full hit. Leia does the same with the second. By the time the third blast hits Rey's hands are shaking, her nose is bleeding and she's finding it hard to breathe. The fourth blast hits and they are blown out of the sky.

Poe stands over the rubble of their escape pod. Watching as Leia returns to the force. His breathing hitches. Rey is in a ball on the floor, her face is a mirror of tears framed with soot and dried blood. Poe is calling for back up. It arrives and they are whisked to a med bay seperately, Rey is sedated as she fights, not wanting to leave the place Leia was last.

Awhile later, in a rescue ship moving at lightspeed Rey is released from the med bay and finds an empty space. She drops to her knees. Her body is wracked with grief but she needs to talk to Ben. She slows her breathing and calls the force to find him. She whispers his name.

He is alone in the throne room. It's empty now. Just ruins he doesn't care to rebuild. He feels a shimmer of force and turns to see a disheveled Rey. She's bloodied and bruised all over. She has burst blood vessels in her left eye and she has clearly been crying for some time.  
'Shes gone, isn't she' he asks tentatively, looking over her kneeling form.  
Rey can't speak for sobbing silently so she just nods once. She's using all of her focus to keep the connection strong. Her head is spinning. But she's holding on.  
'What happened' Ben inquires.  
Rey let's out a pained breathe  
'The knights of Ren...' she gulps a breathe in   
'Hux sent them... They shot us out of the sky' she looks away pained, embarrassed almost.  
'I tried...... So hard...... But the missiles and ' he holds up a hand as his face darkens.  
He turns his back. He doesn't want to show the emotion but she can feel it rippling off of him. Grief. Anger. Regret.  
'Im so sorry, I tried to save her, I wasn't....strong....enough' she breathes out unsteadily, dropping her head in sorrow, her strength waining.   
He had not expected to hear the last comment. 

'You just don't know how' he starts to say as he turns and sees her fighting for breathe.

In his grief he hadn't realized that she was making this connection.

In his anger he hadn't seen her struggling to make this connection hold. 

In his regret he hadn't considered that this shows she is strong enough but only just.

In 2 long strides he joins Rey on her knees. He pulls off his golves and throws them to the side and gently, he puts his bare hands on hers, sending her strength through the force.   
The connection suprised both of them, Rey feeling the strength he is sending, his power, his intense control, but also the burn of the pain he has endured and the fresh grief nearly tipping him over the edge completely.   
Ben in return is feeling a sadness and exhaustion he had never imagined possible. He knew from his first mental interrogation that Rey lived a tired and sleepless life, but this was like nothing he'd endured or understood. He sees her memory of his mother passing and Rey nearly breaking herself to save her.   
As Rey takes a deep breathe in, Ben exhales slowly. Looking at their joined hands, both find a strange peace in their shared pain.   
Rey speaks first after some time.

'Corsucant are holding a state funeral for her' 

'They'll kill me before I land' he replies sharply.

'Iwon't let them' she says with conviction.

He looks into her eyes and sees only truth, fierce heartfelt truth. He is taken aback by the intention behind her statement, she repeats herself.

'i won't let them.'  

'Ok' he says slowly. Rey takes a deep breathe but her hands are starting to shake again. Her exhaustion getting the better of her.

'Get some rest. Let me know me the arrangements' Ben looks solemnly Into her eyes, then let's go of her hands, breaking the connection.

 

After a few hours Rey collects herself and approaches Poe and Finn about Leia's funeral. The second she mention Ben they both look at her like she's speaking in tongues. They look concerned and instantly ridicule her idea. But her conviction, her emotion and her eyes engage them.   
Poe actually shuts his mouth for a second and sits down. He begins a line about it being the perfect time to arrest the new Supreme Leader but Rey shouts at him. Not using the force. But she truly shouts her rage at him, about his impulsive stupidity, his heartlessness and about his ambition overriding his humanity. 

Eventually Rey manages to come to an agreement with the leaders of the Resistance and the rulers of Corsucant.  
Ben is to arrive alone.   
He will be heavily guarded but during the funeral he is a guest, he will be unarmed and the First Order are being considered seperate from him.

When this is relayed to him Ben is truly surprised. He doesn't understand how this tiny woman pulled so many strings for him. But he can feel it in the bond. He knows why. But he can't think it. Not right now. 

 

As he arrives on Corsucant he is greeted by a small party from the governing body of Corsucant and a few Resistance leaders. They set out the terms of his time on the planet and he agrees to everything.  
Rey is by his side immediately. Her face is bright but her eye is still red and healing. She nods at him and he nods back. 

Over the hours preceding his mother's funeral Rey repeatedly stands and intervenes with anyone who even thinks negatively towards Ben. He senses it and the second he turns his head to look at the person she is there before his head stops moving, already berating someone for considering violence at a funeral, at Leia's funeral. 

She can see how defeated he is. His eyes rimmed red and the shadows beneath seem darker than natural for such a pale man.

When she senses an assassin on the roof of a neighboring building she doesn't hesitate to use the force to disarm them and unceremoniously dislocate their knees. Ben raises his eyebrows at her violent actions. She looks up at him, she knows he wasn't going to stop whatever the assassin was going to fire at him. She is somehow sadder than she was before, she didn't know she could be sadder.

Standing next to each other at the funeral feels beyond odd for them both. Ben can feel Rey using all her force power to stay strong for him, it's exhausting her. She's shaking. She's dizzy. She's losing her light. He slowly takes his glove off, lowers his hand, and just holds his bare palm flat against hers.

She immediately feels his power.

She feels his sorrow. 

She feels his gratitude for her. 

He's sending her some of his power. 

Her spark of light is engulfed with a flame of pure emotion.   
And she sends that light back to him. 

Breathing deep, tears falling in the silence of the ceremony and hands joined, Rey and Ben are closer now than they ever knew they could be to someone.

In this moment they are equal, in pain and in power.

And they both feel each others desperate need for it not to end.


End file.
